Loud Thinking: Tamed Religion

Everybody has a religion. Everybody has a god that they serve, whether it is shaped like a person or a thing. Our biggest ambitions are clothed with desires that are only expressions of worship to the gods we serve. 

Institutionalized religion is not the problem. The problem is that we are so structured in our beliefs in such way that our religion is hidden from our conscience because we preach to ourselves the same sermon of what is not good over and over again. So we rise up in our desires, seeking to satisfy a god that is consuming us by making us believe that we are free, but really we are enslaved to it. With or without banners, this religion makes itself the abstract identity to which we cling. There is nothing new that we bring to the table. There is nothing new under the sun. Our perception of our new way of life has been always the old way to chain our hearts and souls to that which is fragile.

Yes, religion is complex. And, most religions are submitted to the human desires to be accomplished, fulfilled, satisfied, and secure. However, there is a religion that is not tamed by human desires, but is conditioned and exclusive in itself. There is a religion where freedom is found by enslaving yourself to an Eternal Master. This Master is One that calls you co-heir, calls you son, invites you to His table to eat with Him. 

Christianity is a religion. It’s not a religions of do’s and don’ts. We don’t live in light of restrictions, but in light of our new hearts, where His law is written. Our God doesn’t let us walk in light of our flesh, for He seeks the best for us. He enables us to avoid the ways of destruction, for He always works all things together for our good. In his economy, there is no boast of our own, for everything has been accomplished by Him; therefore, He is our true security, sufficiency and satisfaction.

There is only two kinds of religions we can choose from: the religion of our own desires where we are enslaved to our supposed freedom, or surrounding ourselves with Christ in His work at the Cross. In this latter religion we can find true freedom by submitting to God’s will.

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, ......,”

Romans 1:1a NASB

Loud Thinking: Faith through thankfulness

Luke 17:15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, 16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine—where are they? 18 Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has made you well.”

Just like the 9 who never came back, how often are we cold to give thanks for our salvation? Dear child of God, have you forgot that you've been bought with a price? have you forgot that your illness and curses were taken by Him who died on your place? We quickly turn to retreats in this world by finding pleasure in it or looking to our accomplishments and we find comfort in self. But we are so slow to acknowledge God's enabling for them, as if our lives were sustained by ourselves. Could you also be complaining for lack of response and blessings which you are expecting and hard yourself to the privilege of giving thanks to God.

We miss a great opportunity to give God's glory when we don't give thanks for what He has done. Faith is an inner posture with an outward respond, giving thanks was an expression of faith for the samaritan. When we are ungrateful, we are in unbelief, we deny the goodness of God, because we just don't get what we want. Or if we have what we want, we don't give thanks to God, because we think we got it because we are  just that good. Has the God of our Salvation has become an accessory to our lives? 

Faith is not just exercised as we ask for things but also when we give thanks for them. If you think that your life is a misery and there is no reason to give thanks for you, just look to what God has done in you in Christ, if you are His. Study each branch on the tree of salvation, every position given to you in Christ, privileges that neither the angels have. 

Has your faith made you well? then give thanks. hasn't your faith made you well? then ask yourself: are you in the faith? Giving thanks for Jesus is giving God's glory because we share the preciousness of the son. God is glorified when His son is estimated as He intended Him to be, and He enjoys when His children partake of this privilege of the redeemed ones.

Pensando en voz alta: Ya diste gracias el dia de hoy?

1 Tesalonicenses 5:18 Den gracias a Dios en todo, porque ésta es su voluntad para ustedes en Cristo Jesús.

Cristiano, cual es tu excusa para no dar gracias el dia de hoy? Dios te ha salvado. El te ha rescatado de la justicia que tu pecado merecia. El te ha redimido, y no te ha reprochado tus pecados en tu contra. El te ha justificado, declarandote inocente delante de sus ojos llenos de amor y justicia. El te ha adoptado, sin reprocharte la rebeldia que le declaraste cuando no le conocias.

Acaso Dios no te ha pedonado tus pecados? No fue El quien dio a su unico Hijo para que tus pecados sean pagados en El? Entonces, la gracia de Dios se ha vuelto tan insignificante para ti, de tal manera que ya no quieres dar gracias? EL hecho de que en su misericordia, El no te ha dado la paga por tus pecados, no te ha alcanzado para entender su grande amor ?

De donde viene tus fuerzas para trabajar? De donde viene tu intelecto? de donde viene tus deseos para venir hacia El? Puedes describir algo en tu vida y decir que El no esta ahi ?

Si tu reconoces Su soberania, como puede dejar de dar gracia, si El es quien gobierna el universo?

Si reconocer tu libre albedrio, por que no usas esa libertad para dar gracias?

Loud Thinking: Did you give thanks today?

1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

What reason do you have to not give thanks today, Christian? God has saved you. He has rescued you from the justice that your sin demanded. He has redeemed you, and has not counted your sins against you. He has justified you by declaring you innocent before His eyes of justice and love. He has adopted you, not remembering your reckless rebellion that you declared to Him when you didn’t know Him. 

Didn’t He forgive your sins? Didn’t He give His only Son so your sins can be paid in Him? Has the grace of God become too small of a matter for you to not give thanks? Has His mercy in not repaying your evil not caused you to understand His amazing love? 

Where does your strength to work comes from? Where does your intellect come from? Where does your ability to come to Him come from? Can you point to one thing in your life and say that He is not there? 

If you acknowledge His sovereignty, how you cannot give thanks for His ruling? If you think you have a free will, then why don’t you give thanks? 

Do not be a Paul Washer: A word to the controversialist

In the age of twitter, celebrity preachers, and relevant ideas there is a temptation to live our lives in light of controversies. We want to stir ideas and bring up things that no one is talking about. I will use myself as an example to see how this works. Part of my
Christian walk was a period that I call “the time when I got reformed”. I started listening to a preacher who is now very well known:Paul Washer. He was mainly known by his Youth shocking Message , a very convicting and very direct sermon. Washer’s style tends to be very confrontational and very harsh, yet I think he is a faithful preacher and many of the things he says are true. When I listened to him preach I was convicted of my sin I wanted others to hear the same kind of preaching soon. This affected me in several ways:

1 Fatalistic statements: Because of the conviction and the weight of his sermons and the many truths about the contemporary church, I started to share many of his quotes in social media. I really wanted to stir up hearts and get a bunch of hypocrites converted. The thing is that many of my convictions at the moment didn’t translate into practical repentance in my own life, which made my statements fatalistic because I affirmed myself by what he said.

2. Experimental doctrine: While felt affirmed by what Washer said, I quoted him to numb my conscience to the conviction I felt. I thought that I was spiritually right because I heard his sermons and read his books, assuming that this was automatically imputing his experiences to myself in the subjects of holiness, prayer, evangelism, and missions. As with any author or preacher we may follow, we can soon assume we are like them simply because we like them. 

3. We need the word and the Holy Spirit: So many of the things I used to quote to “convert” people from their hypocrisy were attempts to make them feel the weightiness of Washer’s words. The problem is that no one needs Washer’s words. They need to hear the word of God and experience the work of the Spirit. This is not to demean  wise, thoughtful authors who write or preach about christian doctrine. But we must recognize that what makes them reliable is the word they preach. The pointedness of a powerful statement doesn’t have any power unless the Spirit is in it and for that we need to submit to the word first. The things we want people to get convicted from are not necessarily found in what Washer, Calvin, or Dever says but in Scripture itself, since these men are students of scripture, not self. Rely on the word as your first source in order to make loving statements.

4.  Context: It took me a while to understand that men like Washer speak from a particular cultural context that to which I can partially relate, because I’m familiar with it. But we must not assume that what they are saying is their first attempt. There may have been former conversations and an attempt to persuasion with a calmer, nicer tone before they preached the cutting words that I listened to. If our first attempt is harsh, we may lose an opportunity to bring somebody to Christ by the way we deal with them.

5.  Paul Washer doesn’t want you to be like him: We can name many of our favorite preachers and authors and they will tell us that they don’t want us to be like them but like Christ. The goal of a godly role model is to redirect us to the cross and the life of Christ. Washer will admit to being in error and making mistakes, and we should learn from this that even the people we highly esteem have limitations. They would even feel pain that their statements have been misunderstood by us in giving us affirmation in our pharisaism or the way we frame them on twitter.

Getting caught in controversies should not be our goal. Even when we see problems in churches or people’s lives, making strong statements won’t change things by itself. We need to begin working for change by prayer, trusting the Lord in His power. This is not saying that you shouldn’t share quotes or statements that have impacted your life or given you sobriety the way they exalted who God is. This is simply to say that God is the one who initiates and the one who works, and we must see ourselves and others as instruments. Before we begin to act like loose canons, we must first have an experiential submission to the truth. Be encouraged brother and see that God is at work. Pray that any sermon and any book you read would impact you by becoming a reality within you and not just because you like it or think is cool. Otherwise I will have to ask you, “Why are you like this? I am talking about you!”

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Thanks to Kyle Gregory for the edition of this blog in order to make it readable.

What are we giving our lives for?

Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

In Christian circles there is a cool Christian brand phrase: “Give your life to God”. This phrase is mainly a reference to the sacrifices of people in church history. But when the phrase is used today, it is usually a vague desire to give our lives for an undefined cause. My desire is to give some definition to why we should seek to give our lives to God:

1. Giving our lives - The language of giving our lives may sound noble but one important question we need to ask is, “What are we giving our lives to?” Our lives in a sense are precious gifts from God, that we don’t have the freedom to just throw away. If we lose our lives it must be for a good reason.

2. The relevance of our lives - In church history we see martyrs who gave their lives for the gospel,whether because of their sound preaching or their efforts to make the gospel known. They didn’t give their lives because they were consumed with themselves but because they were consumed with Christ.

3. Make The Gospel Great Again - The purpose of a call to give our lives is to make the gospel known. We are now ambassadors for Christ, ministers of reconciliation, children of God, and heirs of the Kingdom. This is what martyrs understood rightly, - it wasn’t a supernatural vision or revelation that gave them a willingness to die but a basic understanding of the Christian life which is to obey God and to go to all the world and make disciples. 

Our lives and our sacrifices count for something as we surrender ourselves to God in order to make Him known through us. The call to give our lives may end in martyrdom but either way it begins in selfless love for others. You probably never heard about celebrity martyrs, because there are none in heaven. Preaching the Gospel in places where the name of Christ hasn’t been mentioned or translating the Bible in foreign languages is humble work. Serving in places where we won’t be known and where there may not be books written about us may not be exciting. But how many saints in heaven we will meet whose names were never part of the Christian reading for seminary class or the top 10 christian reading list! Take courage and give the Gospel - the knowledge of the one true God through Christ - even if it costs your life.

I only have one life,

And that will soon be past;

I want my life to count for Christ,

What's done for Him will last. ~ David Livingstone

Loud Thinking: Do not be Anxious

Do not be anxious for anything, for the Lord hasn’t denied anything good to you, for His word says that everybody who trusts Him wont be disappointed and everything works together for the good of those who belong to Him.

May the wait, may the struggle, may the circumstances be hard to endure but hasn’t He empower you with the promise Holy Spirit to seal His salvation? I am so helpless when I trust my own device, when I often I look back  and regret of no getting what I want the easy way. what I need to understand is that the Sovereign God has allowed that to gives us time to appreciate the greatest gift we have which is to have Him.

Do not be anxious precious child for everything for eternal life can only be given to you through Christ and if you posses it, thats more than enough. Do not give room to the devil to make you think that Christ is not enough, do not let him twist your worldview to low your standards in order to do it the cheap way. 

Do not envy the unsaved, for yourself underestimate your position in Christ if you happen to have the same worldly standards, you have been made for more. You have been made for the Glory of God, then live in light of such truth. 

1 Peter 5:6-8 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.